Hey gamers, today I will be reviewing what I consider the single most disappointing Pokemon game released in the main series franchise.

Pokemon Sun and Moon were hyped up immensely before their release, with people throwing heavy speculations all over the place. The removal of gyms was vastly talked about, as was the game’s islands based region instead of your average mainland one. X and Y were promoted to be the first 3D Pokemon games but realistically they still functioned as 2D, only now you could move diagonally in a straight line. With Sun and Moon 3D Pokemon finally felt like a reality. The region also seemed to fit this idea, with the original grid like structure of the map no longer being present.

The game was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2016 and marked the start of Generation 7 of Pokemon.

Graphics - 7/10

The graphics in this game were a massive improvement over the overall poor transition made in X and Y, and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. There, the 3D models looked pixilated and I wasn’t a fan of the overall chibi art style they used for the characters. In Sun and Moon, however, they returned to a more normal look, with much clearer backgrounds, textures, everything.

I’ll also include new Pokemon designs here. Honestly I was overall a pretty big fan of a lot of the new Pokemon. Salazzle, Araquanid, and Toxapex to name a few. There were a couple like Incineroar who I find questionable but in general they did a fine job.

Character design was on point this game. They improved on character customization and the designs were more original than in gen 6. I will say that there was a very rough irregularity with how a character would look like they’re talking for ages when their sentence already ended. Your main character also hardly shows any emotion during the game.

This would all give the game a solid number, however I’m going to have to lower this a bit due to the game just not running well. Intense graphics, any double battles, stuff like that will just drop your FPS and make the game look like it’s being emulated on a phone. A shame really. Had they released the game on the Switch it would’ve done a lot better.

Sound - 8/10

Okay I won’t lie, most tracks in this game are absolutely great. I don’t find them particularly memorable, but maybe that’s because I don’t enjoy these games as much as others. Any time I start it up I’m just pleasantly reminded at how catchy or fun some tracks are. But yeah I can’t hum any of them right now as I’m typing this so I guess for me there’s just something missing. I’ll admit this could be a little biased.

Story - 5/10

Okay, I know this is not a popular opinion, and feel free to disagree with me. I honestly thought the majority of the plot wasn’t that good. To begin with, the tutorial section of this game takes up like 2/3rds of the entire first island of the game. It’s long and tedious, made even worse by the fact that you’re not free to roam around the place as you please. The game will put you right back where it wants you to go if you go too far from it. It’s almost like falling off the map in Mario Kart. On top of that, and this is where it already begins, the game will throw you in a cutscene every 10 seconds. You can literally hear Lillie say she’s going to the nail salon or whatever, and then 5 steps later Hau walks up to you to tell you Lillie is waiting at the nail salon. Gee thanks man but I’m not a boomer.

The story picks up a bit later but I could never really get into it. My favorite part is probably team Skull and what their motivations are, and I found the relationship between Guzma and Professor Kukui interesting. That sadly all got overshadowed when they thought adding a second, underdeveloped team into the mix was a good idea. And right as things get a little interesting with family history, they decide focussing on a big threat to the region is a bigger priority.

That’s the general gist of it anyway. I personally despise Lillie as a character. I think she was poorly written and introduced, had a rush in development instead of it feeling progressive and natural, and she got on my nerves by constantly pointing out her cotton candy named Nebby instead of focussing on the things happening around us which heavily distracted from the story. I normally wouldn’t mind this with such a bland storyline but the alternative was worse in this case.

Depth - 8/10

Not much to really say here, pretty much the average depth for a Pokemon game. Instead of gyms you have trials now but they’re practically the same, for post game content you have a part of an island yet to explore and a Battle Tree to keep yourself busy. Oh and a set of Looker missions that allow you to catch some cool Pokemon! I will also give them credit for making shiny hunting more interesting and accessible, so good on them.

Addictiveness - 7/10

Pokemon is always a little addicting. You always find yourself wondering if one more battle would be alright. But this game in particular is pretty easy to flow through. I think the overall pacing works fine and there are clear points where it just feels right to save and call it a day. The unique shiny hunting method also makes that aspect of the game less tedious. Lastly filling the Pokedex is easier now due to the rotom dex telling you how many you still need on every page. The fun poses the models have in the Pokedex also make it worth it.

Difficulty - 7/10

Pretty alright for a Pokemon game. This isn’t due to me turning off the exp. share, though that helps, but I actually genuinely struggled with a few of the boss totem battles. Salazzle and Mimikyu in particular were tricky to defeat. The trainers and the league were still pretty easy though.

Overall - 7/10

Like I said, I think in a lot of aspects these are the most disappointing titles we’ve had. The FPS lag wasn’t great, the annoying cutscenes could have often been left out and the tutorial was way too long. I still like the games more than X and Y, but my expectations were higher. They’re fun to nuzlocke though due to the hard mini bosses in the totems. A good variety of Pokemon as well.

Solid, but could’ve been better. I’ve heard the second versions are better but I haven’t played them yet.

Furret : i really like your review nice job, on putting the word graphics then next paragraph your talking about the graphics, and same with sound, depth and so on, i really love it.

Furret : i really like your review nice job, on putting the word graphics then next paragraph your talking about the graphics, and same with sound, depth and so on, i really love it.

hellno163 : Thanks man, appreciate it! : )

hellno163 : Thanks man, appreciate it! : )

Furret : your welcome

Furret : your welcome